Name a stupid policy/idea your facility thought would fly

Nurses General Nursing

Published

A former facility thought they could multi task the housekeepers by having them be lab techs. If they were in a room cleaning, they could drop their mops and get a few vials of blood for us. That lasted about a month before it was thankfully stopped.

I remember watching them learn to draw blood. They were given a 30 min tutorial on a rubber arm.

I'm sorry I wasn't clear.....they make $30.0/hr more than non union facilities. There are many senior nurses at a prominent Boston hospital making in the ballpark of $70.00/hr without shift diff. But is is a difficult place to get into.

What does "senior" mean? Just experienced or in positions of leadership? Are those floor nurses or what? Is this rumor or do you know for a fact?

Specializes in Neurosciences, cardiac, critical care.
I mean when you put this into the perspective of a nurse straightening up a room after a messy family leaves, refill the ice in the mug, and what ever beverage the patient desires (and can have), reposition them to comfort, start an IV, get their fluids and antibiotic going, (after you've made sure that no labs are ordered first). Then you finish their admission paperwork, administer a few PRNs to give them comfort, get the worst of the vomit in the bathroom floor, and measure their urine in the specipan, and add it to the DAR on the door, and fetch an AccuCheck, get a 53mg/dL, get a snack. Then once you've made sure it's up, and all is safe, you help elderly Mrs. Doe find the ABC News (the only news show that will do), and then turn it up loud enough for her to hear over her whistling hearing aids, and realize your now 15 minutes behind schedule, . . . and you have only satisfied 1 out of 6 patients, (and ones coming from ER to a room you haven't got to set up yet (your aid got pulled to a 1:1), and the desk is paging you to take report on this 98 year old full code with c/o chest pain and 4 more Co-morbities;. . . . . .

You realize asking someone else to multitask shouldn't make our jaws drop!!!

:redbeatheBoston

This is my day!!!! LOL so perfect!!! :yeah:

Specializes in Neurosciences, cardiac, critical care.
I think the housekeeper/phlebotomist policy is going to be the winner... However I do have a "good" one to share. A certain hospital that I worked at for a short time stated that their nurses were perceived as "lazy" by the general public. To improve their image, the management decided that nurses (and nurse techs) were no longer allowed to sit down during their shift unless they were lucky enough to leave the floor for a lunch break (which almost never happened) or using the restroom.

The nurses' station was closed down and all the tables and chairs on the floors were removed, except for a single card table with one chair, a computer, and a phone for the secretary. The nurses were issued zone phones to carry, and portable computers with instructions to do all charting in the patients' rooms so that they and their visitors could "see you working". The nurses were also issued locater badges, to track were they went on the floor and how long they spent in each patient's room. (to make sure they weren't "sitting down being lazy somewhere") To add further insult: there was a room set aside for physicians to dictate and review their charts and sit down with tables chairs and computers, but it was only accessible with a physician's ID badge.

:no: I think ​I'd need professional help after working someplace like that!! I hope they paid well...

The day my hospital puts "locator" badges on me is going to be interesting. I will have to leave the badge in the room for 10 minutes, continue with my job, go get the badge and put it in another room and leave it and continue. Of course I will end up forgetting it or forgetting where I put it and how fun will that be?

Specializes in PICU, ICU, Hospice, Mgmt, DON.
In places like FL, where there many "snowbirds" and "immigrants from the North" along with seasonal travel staff, restaurants and other service industries have this practice. I suppose it is to make for conversation.However, an epic fail in hospitals. Because w/many snowbirds (which many are "older" and less culturally tolerant, you will get the ones that refuse foreign nurses/travelers, those that demand the northern one (because those schools are better), or request the Asian nurse " because they treat their men better",etc.(reminder of why I WILL NEVER work in WPB FL ever again - not enough money on this planet)

I can't stop laughing at this.....guess where I live???????

not only do they pull stuff like this...but the pay is crappy as well!!!!!....you would think with all of the money down here in the "Palm Beaches" the nursing salaries would be great, right?

WRONG....really low compared to the cost of living.

In Florida all you will get is burned...from the sun and the hospitals.....

Specializes in Oncology/Haemetology/HIV.
I can't stop laughing at this.....guess where I live???????not only do they pull stuff like this...but the pay is crappy as well!!!!!....you would think with all of the money down here in the "Palm Beaches" the nursing salaries would be great, right?WRONG....really low compared to the cost of living.In Florida all you will get is burned...from the sun and the hospitals.....
Thus, why this native Floridian lives 1000 miles north.
Specializes in Neurosciences, cardiac, critical care.
Thus, why this native Floridian lives 1000 miles north.

I moved to the other coast! Stories from my friends that are nurses in FL are scary.

forcing all ADNs to get there BSNs or be fired. I hate magnet status. Most of the ADNs are the old school RNs that help teach the new "baby" nurses how to really be nurses. Instead it seems the hospitals are out to get rid of anyone making to much money on the floor, or near or at cap pay...most being ADNs...mostly because we went to school 20 plus years ago when it wasnt feasible for "moms" to go back to school for a bachelors while raising babies and having homes etc. I was one of the youngest in my class in 1994, and I was 30 at graduation time.

Now they want me to go back, and i'm pushing 50. I have 8 prerequisites (2 political sciences?? lol pahleez, algebra (i took nursing math, metric system..makes sense huh) and a slew of other things that sure wont help me give enema's any better than I do now.

I never want to be a manager, I never want to be anything than a floor nurse, or maybe a school nurse near retirement, but hey with 18 yrs of pediatric experience..i cant even do THAT without a bachelors degree. I'll be 54 before i'm done...then will retire in 6 yrs.

STUPID STUPID STUPID. Nursing shortage is gone for now, but it will be back.

forcing all ADNs to get there BSNs or be fired. I hate magnet status. Most of the ADNs are the old school RNs that help teach the new "baby" nurses how to really be nurses. Instead it seems the hospitals are out to get rid of anyone making to much money on the floor, or near or at cap pay...most being ADNs...mostly because we went to school 20 plus years ago when it wasnt feasible for "moms" to go back to school for a bachelors while raising babies and having homes etc. I was one of the youngest in my class in 1994, and I was 30 at graduation time.

Now they want me to go back, and i'm pushing 50. I have 8 prerequisites (2 political sciences?? lol pahleez, algebra (i took nursing math, metric system..makes sense huh) and a slew of other things that sure wont help me give enema's any better than I do now.

I never want to be a manager, I never want to be anything than a floor nurse, or maybe a school nurse near retirement, but hey with 18 yrs of pediatric experience..i cant even do THAT without a bachelors degree. I'll be 54 before i'm done...then will retire in 6 yrs.

STUPID STUPID STUPID. Nursing shortage is gone for now, but it will be back.

This is a trend here in Arizona too, although every hospital doing this also has tuition reimbursement. Don't be too hard on your facility, this is an industry wide trend , not just a facility. When hospitals start increasing their rates of BSN nurses you do not want to be that 1 hospital that stands out.

Before claiming that a BSN will not enhance your clinical abilities I would do a quick Google search and look at all the studies that say otherwise, its actually fascinating.

Agree this is the trend. We have many getting their BSN and most of it is online. It is tedious and hard for those who work and have family plus it is expensive. They are paying for some of it. I am NOT doing it. No one has approached me. I don't think they can force anyone. It is just a suggestion. Besides, they know I will be around for only a few more years unless I win a lottery. I would quit today but cannot afford private health insurance for me and hubby. And yet (don't get me started) we have people who are getting excellent care in our expensive area of living and hang out at hospital for weeks until their free medical kicks in.

UNBELIEVABLE..... My Jaw just dropped..

+ Add a Comment